One-minute and two-minute commercials are referred to as “short-form” and the half hour infomercials as “long-form.”

Stations and cable outlets mostly sell time in units of one minute, two minutes, five minutes and then half-hours.

Products that sell for $19.95 or less work best in a short-form campaign (although there are exceptions, including lead generation short forms). If a product sells for more than $29.95 it has less of a chance of working in short form. The selling process for a higher priced item takes longer than two minutes. A product that will sell for $39.95 or more should typically utilize a long-form campaign. Also, the 5 minute infomercials can be used to test the viability of a higher priced item without paying the full price for a half hour infomercial.